


Second Chances

by lilithfatale



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Billionaire Cisco is actually cute af, Caitlin is dealing with some things, F/M, Flashpoint (DCU), Flashpoint AU, Fluff and Angst, I NEEDED IT, Kiddie Eye Doctors of the world unite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 19:37:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17453015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithfatale/pseuds/lilithfatale
Summary: The speedster/possible kidnapper Barry Allen and his alternate timeline theory have turned Dr Caitlin Snow's world upside down. Maybe someone will help her figure it out.





	Second Chances

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @ciscoatthedisco on Tumblr for prompting me to come up with the headcanon that inspired this fic, and thanks to @thatkillervibe for being a great beta!
> 
> Dedicated to the KV fandom <3

Caitlin watched the boy Wally lying in the hospital bed.

 _He’s so young_ , she thought. He looked like he was barely in college, too young to be running around the city chasing evildoers. She felt guilty leaving him, to be leaving the building at all. She wasn’t sure why.

The doctor blinked, and mentally shook herself. _I can go_ , she told herself. _The kidnapping - or whatever this is – it’s over. I can go home_.

(Never mind that a niggling part of her thought this lab was home.)

Caitlin smoothed down her skirt, took a deep breath and went in search of the one person she was vaguely familiar with in all this mess.

 

The area outside Mr Ramon’s private lab was swarming with people in suits. Eventually she caught sight of the man himself, and hurried to catch up.

“Mr Ramon?”

He looked up from his discussion with a tall brunette (who did not look happy at the interruption). A flicker of something showed in his expression before being replaced with annoyance.

“Kiddie eye doctor. Yes?”

“I was wondering if you could call me a cab? I, uh, left the hospital in a hurry…”

He nodded brusquely. “Reception will take care of it. Just head up to the first floor.” He gestured to the elevator, and turned back to the tall brunette.

Caitlin stared at them for a moment.

That was that, apparently.

 

Caitlin went up in the elevator to a lobby where the receptionist called her a cab. She stared out of the cab window on the way back to the hospital, trying to collect her thoughts. She, Dr Caitlin Snow, had helped to track down the Rival, treated Kid Flash, and met the richest (and rudest) man in America, all in one day. It didn’t seem real. _And if the other speedster Barry Allen is right,_ she thought, _we're all in an alternate timeline, so what even is reality?_

If that was true, what was her life like in that other timeline? Barry told them she was a scientist. She had friends. Was she happier there?

Caitlin stared down at her hands. The ring Ronnie had given her by that waterfall five years ago glinted in the light. She had moved it from her left hand to her right but couldn’t bear to give it up completely. Her mother had views on that, naturally, but Caitlin still resisted.

 _It doesn’t matter_ , she told herself. _You can’t change anything_.

The cab stopped outside Central City Children’s Hospital and she resurfaced from her thoughts with a start. The driver told her the ride was covered by Mr Ramon’s personal account, and wished her a good day. She nodded, got out of the car and watched in a daze as it sped off. Back to work.

 

*** *** ***

 

There was a minor upset over Caitlin’s sudden disappearance from the hospital at 2.30 in the afternoon – Dr Waters had been close to calling the police – but Caitlin claimed a personal emergency and promised to make it up in unpaid overtime. Dr Waters looked at her with a steely gaze for a long time and then nodded. Caitlin made up the overtime, and life went on as normal.

Caitlin kept waiting for things to change but nothing did. No kidnappings in broad daylight, no news about Kid Flash, nothing about Barry Allen. It was all routine.

Until one Thursday morning Caitlin’s colleague Lucy burst into her office, in an unusual state of excitement.

“Caitlin!” she hissed, “You never told me you knew him!”

“Who?” Caitlin asked distractedly as she wrote her notes. Fiona Daniels had an astigmatism, she thought, she would need to account for that in the prescription.

“Cisco Ramon!” Lucy took Caitlin by the shoulder and dragged her to the door. Caitlin opened her mouth to protest about her notes…

…and then through the crack in the door she saw a familiar figure in the corridor surrounded by a swarm by admirers. He wore glasses and an expensive suit.

Her throat went dry. “Um.”

 

Lucy nudged her. “He told Dr Waters that he is here to see you.” She looked at Caitlin as if seeing her in an entirely new light.

“I met him once,” Caitlin said defensively. “It was…a project he needed help with. But it’s finished now.”

“He wants to collaborate with you so hard,” Lucy whispered gleefully, just as Mr Ramon caught sight of them and strode down the hall.

Caitlin glared at Lucy and did her best to ignore the flush spreading down her neck. She moved back to her desk. “It’s not like that,” she hissed, and hurriedly sat down just as there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” she said curtly.

Mr Ramon stepped through the door in a dark blue suit. They stared at each other for a moment.

Lucy stepped forward. “It’s so great to meet you Mr Ramon, I’m Dr Lucy Douglas. I’ll just be going…” She turned and gave Caitlin a shit-eating grin behind Mr Ramon’s back, then sashayed through the door. It closed with a decisive click.

 

Caitlin closed her eyes, swore briefly and silently, and then opened them. She squared her shoulders and gave her best accommodating smile. “Mr Ramon,” she said. “How can I help you?”

He was looking around her office, noting the play corner and the posters on the walls. “So this is where you work. Huh.”

Caitlin’s jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed. “I’m just a kiddie eye doctor, after all,” she said crisply.

The richest man in America looked slightly chastened. “I deserved that,” he admitted. “I may have underestimated you a bit.” Off her look he hastily said, “A lot.” He sat down in the chair opposite hers. “The other day in my lab, it felt like we’d worked together before. That we knew each other. Did you feel it too?”

Caitlin hesitated. Mr Ramon was looking at her seriously, with no trace of his usual arrogance. He seemed almost afraid. Vulnerable. She had never seen that look before - but somehow she knew his expressions as well as her own.

“Yes,” she said. “I feel like we know each other. It’s very strange.” They stared at each other again, with a strange tension in the air. She cleared her throat and changed the subject.

 

“Have you heard any more from Barry Allen? Or Iris West?” Mr Ramon looked irritated. “Wally is still recovering in my lab. That other speedster seems to have disappeared into thin air. Iris said -” he paused, and fiddled with his ring. “She said he’s gone back in time to fix this alternate timeline.”

“Do you think it’s real?” she asked. “That there’s this whole other world where things are different?” Mr Ramon snorted. “I hope not. I like my life how it is.”

“Right.” The ring on the third finger of her right hand felt heavy. She cleared her throat, and stood up. “Well, if that was all…”

The billionaire stood up from his chair, and studied his shoes. “Um.”

She looked at him, questioningly. “Yes, Mr Ramon?”

“I thought…you could call me Cisco. And we could discuss this some more. Over dinner.”

 

He finally met her gaze, looking a little nervous. Caitlin felt the sudden urge to laugh. _The richest man in America_ , she thought, _is nervous about asking me out_. Me. “I don’t think your assistant would be happy about that,” she observed. “You two seemed…close.”

“Kimberley? Oh, we’re over,” he said, hurriedly. She gave him an incredulous look. Cisco held up his hands in surrender. “I promise,” he said, “I’m not dating anyone right now. Are you?”

Caitlin shook her head. “No.”

His face lit up with a hopeful grin. “So, Dr Snow…would you like get to dinner with me?”

Dr Snow thought about alternate timelines and old lives and second chances. She felt his grin bathe her in sunlight, and matched it with one of her own.

“It’s Caitlin,” she said. “And yes. Dinner would be nice.”


End file.
